In verbal human-robot interaction natural language utterances have to be grounded in visual scenes by the robot. Visual language grounding is a challenging task that includes identifying a primary object among several objects, together with the object properties and spatial relations among the objects. In this paper we focus on extracting this information from sentences only. We propose two language modelling techniques, one uses regular expressions and the other one utilizes Euclidian distance. We compare these two proposed techniques with two other techniques that utilize tree structures, namely an extended Hobb’s algorithm and an algorithm that utilizes a Stanford parse tree. A comparative analysis between all language modelling techniques shows that our proposed two approaches require less computational time than the tree-based approaches. All approaches perform good identifying the primary object and its property, but for spatial relation extraction the Stanford parse tree algorithm performs better than the other language modelling techniques. Time elapsed for the Stanford parse tree algorithm is higher than for the other techniques.

Recent years have seen an increasing trend towards the development of Discrete Event Simulation (DES) platforms to support cloud computing related decision making and research. The complexity of cloud environments is increasing with scale and heterogeneity posing a challenge for the efficient management of cloud applications and data centre resources. The increasing ubiquity of social media, mobile and cloud computing combined with the Internet of Things and emerging paradigms such as Edge and Fog Computing is exacerbating this complexity. Given the scale, complexity and commercial sensitivity of hyperscale computing environments, the opportunity for experimentation is limited and requires substantial investment of resources both in terms of time and effort. DES provides a low risk technique for providing decision support for complex hyperscale computing scenarios. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the development and extension of tools to support DES for cloud computing resulting in a wide range of tools which vary in terms of their utility and features. Through a review and analysis of available literature, this paper provides an overview and multi-level feature analysis of 33 DES tools for cloud computing environments. This review updates and extends existing reviews to include not only autonomous simulation platforms, but also on plugins and extensions for specific cloud computing use cases. This review identifies the emergence of CloudSim as a de facto base platform for simulation research and shows a lack of tool support for distributed execution (parallel execution on distributed memory systems).

In this paper we model virtual buying cooperatives (VBC) with grammars of regulated rewriting and show that, if VBC relevant information is distributed over several successive VBC processes and must, in a later stage, be synchronised and co-ordinated, the formal grammar needs to be very powerful with respect to mode of derivation and thus generative capacity. In particular, we show how to model the supplier phase, invitation phase, and declaration phase of a VBC with random permitting context grammars and the VBC reservation phase with random context grammars under a special kind of leftmost derivation. If we use random permitting context grammars for all processes, we can only model a VBC formation during which information is introduced and processed locally and successively rather than being spread over different VBC processes.

In many complex robotics systems, interaction takes place in all directions between human, robot, and environment. Performance of such a system depends on this interaction, and a proper evaluation of a system must build on a proper modeling of interaction, a relevant set of performance metrics, and a methodology to combine metrics into a single performance value. In this paper, existing models of human-robot interaction are adapted to fit complex scenarios with one or several humans and robots. The interaction and the evaluation process is formalized, and a general method to fuse performance values over time and for several performance metrics is presented. The resulting value, denoted interaction quality, adds a dimension to ordinary performance metrics by being explicit about the interplay between performance metrics, and thereby provides a formal framework to understand, model, and address complex aspects of evaluation of human-robot interaction.

The use of distributed Cloud/Edge/Fog computing unveils additional
opportunities for faster, more cost efficient content delivery that compliments a
traditional centralised cloud data centre. However, the nature of such geographically
distributed system comprised of heterogeneous infrastructure creates additional
compute resource management challenges for infrastructure and service providers
as well as service consumers. The ”REliable CApacity Provisioning and
enhanced remediation for distributed cloud applications (RECAP)” project aim
is to develop robust methodologies and tool-sets that allow autonomous distributed
infrastructure and application management through delivering optimised performance
at a lower cost. RECAP is set to employ multi-objective optimisation
techniques of application remediation and auto-scaling which are based on continuous
system instrumentation data analysis and modelling. To direct the research
effort, the project is guided by industry-led use-cases describing the challenges of
distributed Cloud/Edge/Fog computing infrastructure capacity provisioning and
distributed application optimisation.

In this paper, we propose a telco cloud meta-model that can be used to simulate different infrastructure configurations
and explore their consequences for system performance and costs. To achieve this, we analyse current
telecommunication and data centre infrastructure paradigms, describe the architecture of the telco cloud, and
detail the benefits of merging both infrastructures in a unified system. Next, we detail the dynamics of the
telco cloud and identify the components that are the most relevant from the perspective of modelling performance
and cost. As a number of well established simulation technologies exist for most of the telco cloud
components, we survey existing models in an attempt to construct a suitable composite meta-model. Finally,
we present a showcase scenario to demonstrate the scope of our telco cloud simulator.

In this work we address service-oriented software development in distributed computing environments, and investigate an approach to software development and integration based on code generation. The approach is illustrated in a toolkit for multi-language software generation built on three building blocks; a service description language, a serialization and transport protocol, and a set of code generation techniques. The approach is intended for use in the eScience domain and aims to reduce the complexity of development and integration of distributed software systems through a low-knowledge-requirements model for construction of network accessible services. The toolkit is presented along with a discussion of use cases and a performance evaluation quantifying the performance of the toolkit against selected alternative techniques for code generation and service communication. In tests of communication overhead and response time, toolkit performance is found to be comparable to or improve upon the evaluated techniques.

Achilles tendinopathy/tendinosis is a troublesome condition which is frequently occurring in response to sports related activities. It can lead to an ending of the sport activity. There is evidence which shows that ingrowth of blood vessels occurs from the peritendinous tissue. In well-established treatments the areas of these vessels are targeted. In Achilles tendinosis there is frequently a coalescing of the plantaris tendon with the Achilles tendon. TNF-alpha is known to be involved in blood vessel remodelling events and angiogenesis. With these facts as background, the peritendinous connective tissue located inbetween the plantaris and Achilles tendons and the plantaris tendon itself in cases with Achilles tendinosis were evaluated concerning expression of TNF-alpha and TNF receptor II (TNFRII). It was found that there were expressions of TNF-alpha in the numerous cells located in the peritendinous connective tissue and that the very frequently occurring blood vessels located in this tissue as well as in the tendon tissue exhibited marked TNFRII reactions. The tenocytes were shown to exhibit moderate TNF-alpha reactions and very strong TNFRII reactions. The observations suggest that TNF-alpha is highly involved in the blood vessel remodelling in tendinosis and that TNF-alpha also is involved in tenocyte function.

Muscle overuse is a frequent condition accompanying sports-related activities. There is a lack of knowledge concerning the importance of signal substances in situations when overuse leads to markedly affected muscle structure and muscle inflammation. Recent observations on signal substance systems for the muscle tissue in situations with muscle overuse, noted via the use of a rabbit model, are therefore here focused on. The signal substance systems are the tachykinin system, the TNF-alpha system and the glutamate system. The studies have shown that all three systems are involved in the myositis/muscle derangement processes that occur. A central finding is the notion that signal substances in all three systems become locally produced in the muscle tissue and that there is a marked presence of receptors for these in the inflammatory/affected muscle tissue. The relevance of the findings in relation to what is known for the systems and possibilities in treatment regimens are discussed. The findings suggest that signal substances, more than what has been previously considered, should be taken into consideration as factors of relevance in situations when overuse leads to structural derangement and muscle inflammation.

Accurate modeling of the behavior of resources and scientific applications in distributed computing environments is complicated by factors such as resource heterogeneity, variability, and volatility. In this work we present a simulation model for fine-grained simulation and analysis of resource environments composed by multiple types of distributed computing resources. The simulation model is based on simulation of individual computational resources and emulation of virtual infrastructures and resource environments. Application and resource behavior are modeled in behavior profiles that capture the wide variability of distributed computing applications and resources, and allow modeling of non-standard metrics such as heterogeneity, variability, and volatility of resources and resource environments. Around the behavior profiles, virtual infrastructures are emulated using discrete-event simulations where infrastructure components are independently modeled. The design of the framework is aimed to facilitate both verification of middleware and application software as well as experimentation with prototype infrastructure components.